1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to motor operated imprinters which imprint a printed record on a formset from one or more print bearing elements. More particularly, the invention relates to imprinters of the aforesaid type which have a generally horizontally disposed surface which receives the print bearing elements and the formset to be imprinted in preparation for imprinting when a head mechanism carrying a rolling platen is in an open position and which imprint the formset when the head mechanism is in a closed position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Imprinters have been used for many years to record credit transactions. Typically, an imprinter is a manually operated device in which a customer's credit card and merchant's station plate, a dater, and optionally, a variable money amount printing mechanism are located on different parts of a surface which receives a formset to which an imprint of the aforementioned elements is transferred by the rolling of a rolling platen over the formset.
In addition to the above-described manually operated imprinters, motor operated imprinters have been in use for many years which use an electric motor to activate the traversal of the rolling platen across the formset to generate an imprint. These systems relieve the operator of the requirement of manually supplying the power for performing the imprinting operation. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,232,230, 3,233,542, 3,416,441, 3,420,171, 3,447,459, 3,494,282, 3,623,426, 4,408,523, 4,423,679 and 4,437,404 each disclose motor operated imprinters.
These imprinters belong to three main groups. The first group, which includes those imprinters disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,232,230, 3,233,542, and 3,447,459 have heads which are mounted on a fixed track which is traversed from a position offset from the printing surface across the printing surface and back. These imprinters permit the user to easily position the credit card and formset on the printing surface, but suffer from the disadvantage that they are not compact in length because of the fact that the head is parked in a position offset from the printing surface. The second group of imprinters, which are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,416,441, 3,420,171, 3,494,282, 3,623,426 and 4,437,404, have a pivoted head which is generally vertically disposed for receiving the formset and credit card to be imprinted. The printing operation of these imprinters is activated by the closing of the head into a latched position. A rolling platen fixedly mounted within the stationary base is traversed across the formset by the activation of the motor when the head is rotated to its latched position. These imprinters can be difficult to use because of the necessity to insert the customer's credit card and formset into the generally vertically disposed head mechanism, especially under circumstances where lighting conditions are not bright, such as occurs in bars and restaurants. The third type of imprinter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,423,679 and 4,408,523 which has a generally horizontally disposed surface for receiving the credit card to be imprinted and the formset while a pivotable head is in an open position in preparation for imprinting and which imprints the formset upon latching of the head in a closed position. This third type of imprinter does not have a simple mechanism for transmitting power from a motor located in the base to the pivoted head. Moreover, the mechanism for mounting the rolling platens in the head mechanism causes the head to be relatively thick which is undesirable for applications where compactness of the imprinter is important.
An important consideration in marketing a motor operated imprinter to hotels, restaurants and bars is its compactness, because of counter space considerations, and the ease of inserting the credit cards and formsets because of lighting conditions. Additionally, a "feel" of durability which is conveyed by a rugged construction is important.